Located in historic downtown St. Francisville right next to the iconic Magnolia Café, 3V Tourist Courts is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1938, these quaint "Bonnie and Clyde" style cabins have been fully renovated with all the charm and excitement of the 1930s, and will evoke memories of the Model Ts, rumble seats, and gorgeous flapper girls here in the heart of plantation country.

3-V has the most reasonable rates in town, and guests praise the peacefulness, quiet, and serenity. You'll find many excellent restaurants and eateries in the area. Why, you can step right outside your door and experience the critically acclaimed menu and atmosphere of the Magnolia Café -- or for breakfast and coffee walk just a few more paces to the unique Birdman Coffee and Books.

The 3-V Tourist Court Motors On
Historic lodgings for the “hip-at-heart.”

Written by James Fox-Smith

For most of us the phrase “historic structure” conjures up images of palatial mansions, soaring cathedrals, and other architectural remnants of days gone by. And while St. Francisville has its fair share of these, one of its most unusual historic properties is something humbler. Built in the mid-nineteen-thirties and offering overnight accommodation to travelers ever since, 3-V Tourist Court is one of just three motor courts that survive in Louisiana (the others are in Shreveport and New Iberia), and it’s the oldest of the lot. In the early days of widespread car ownership, St. Francisville’s three Vinci brothers opened their 3-V Motor Court—twelve cabins, each connected to its neighbor by a little carport—near the corner of Commerce and Ferdinand streets. Since that corner was also anchored by the 3-V Café and the 3-V Bar, the Vinci brothers appear to have had something of a monopoly on the corner at the time. In the forties they added the gas station that would evolve into the iconic Magnolia Café once Robin Marshall got her hands on it. Robin bought the Vincis’ 3-V Tourist Court in the ‘eighties—by which time America’s Best Westerns and Motel 6’s had more or less sent humble little motor courts like 3-V the way of the dinosaur.

“This is one of the truest examples of Americana,” says Kevin Ford, who manages and maintains 3-V today. With fresh paint and attractively updated interiors courtesy of a recent renovation, the cabins are looking smart, although they still retain the higgledy-piggledy charm peculiar to things that have stood for a long time. “This is not the whole B&B experience,” explained Ford. “The best description I ever heard was that 3-V is for the ‘hip-at-heart’—folks coming to St. Francisville to hang out, go to The Magnolia, hear a band, have a few drinks, then stroll back to the room. And with the [Birdman] coffee shop right there for breakfast, it’s a perfect overnight.”

The rate has gone up a bit since the ‘thirties, but you can still get a newly renovated cabin complete with ensuite, flatscreen TV, queen bed and high-thread-count linens for well under $100 a night. Or cheaper, if you show up on a bike or in a canoe. Ford offers a special “Adventurer’s Rate” for road- and paddle-weary travelers. “We’re on the national cyclists’ map,” he noted. “We’ve had everybody. There was a Swiss guy who had kayaked from the headwaters of the Mississippi. He’d been through seventeen days of hell—storms, insects, high water … sleeping in a tent. When he got here, he was so happy he about cried.”